February 12, 2019 White Noise

The Liberty Gazette

February 12, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Forty-five years of flying, sitting only a few feet from thundering engines and propellers, or in noisy jet cockpits where the air blasted by, has left me with a buzzing in my ears that sounds like cicadas. I have tinnitus. I’m not deaf; it’s a low-volume hum in the background. Soaring soothes my tinnitus. Quiet flight in sailplanes is not silent, as often believed. There is a soft airflow whooshing by the canopy creating a static-like resonance. It masks the little critters chirping in my ears and gives me relief.

The whoosh is “white noise.” The full scientific definition of white noise won’t fit here—the length and vocabulary involved remind me of the Youtube video of the guy in the lab coat comically hawking the fictitious “Turbo Encabulator.” He’s trying to sell it to the government, touting its “swerthing bearings” and “use in the manufacture of novatrunions.” Sounds like mumbo-jumbo, just like reading about white noise. My eyes glaze over as I try to understand harmonics. But simply put, white noise is like a radio tuned to an unused frequency. And, it is helpful in treating what I live with—like therapy—it’s relaxing, as it quiets the ringing.

Because of its effectiveness on tinnitus, there are many sleep aids that produce white noise. By the way, if you think your house is bugged—possibly by that flat-screen TV—you can purchase a white noise privacy enhancer or a smart phone app that sings white noise.

Linda: Speaking of smart phones, wasn’t life a lot quieter without them? Companies are sometimes forced to have their employees leave them outside of meetings to minimize interruptions, so everyone can focus. One popular gas station/convenience store upholds the employee policy to leave their cell phones in their cars. Employees are there to work, not chat. We were recently in a meeting when one person got a phone call and kept the phone on speaker while carrying on a conversation, interrupting the presentation.

How many people want to listen to a stranger’s phone conversation? Consider that conversation inside an airliner passenger cabin. Once the aircraft door is closed, they should have that thing on airplane mode, so it won’t interfere with the airplane’s electronics.

Many older airplanes lack modern shielding to prevent electron interruptions. That technology wasn’t around twenty years ago. Today’s cell phone conversations can intrude on pilot operations. As airplanes climb, getting further from cell towers, the phone works harder trying to link to the network. The greater power output forces voices to radiate through the shielding. The conversation can pierce into the pilots’ headphones. This interference may happen at a most inopportune time, like when receiving important instructions from air traffic control. The best way to prevent this is to put the phone on airplane mode or turn it off entirely.

Mike: That’s good advice that helps pilots. Meanwhile, I’ll keep soaring. The whooshing white noise helps keep the cicadas treed for a while.

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